Step Aside, Oscars, Here Are the Becon Winners

By Cass R. Sunstein -
Feb 22, 2013

Behavioral economists explore human
errors. They focus on how people depart from perfect
rationality. Many of the best movies do the same thing. They
investigate how our all-too-human foibles create trouble,
wealth, violence, heroism, love and war. It is past time, then,
to award the Behavioral Economics Oscars, otherwise known as the
Becons.

Best Documentary: Behavioral economists have long been
fascinated by social influences on behavior -- by the extent to
which our choices are affected by the choices of other people.
Why do some products succeed and others fail?

A major reason is that early adopters can create a
bandwagon effect or a cascade. Politicians, entrepreneurs and
novelists often benefit from such processes, and some of them
fail because they don’t get that early boost.

“Searching for Sugar Man” is a terrific exploration of
the power of social influences. The singer Sixto Rodriguez was a
dismal failure in the U.S. but an icon in South Africa, and
early word of mouth played a big role in his success there in
the 1970s. For best documentary, the Sugar Man brings home the
Becon.

Best Director: Psychologists and behavioral economists
contend that human beings have two cognitive systems. System 1
is our automatic system. It is intuitive, rapid and effortless.
System 2 is our deliberative system. It is calculative,
thoughtful, reflective and slow.

“Silver Linings Playbook,” directed by David O. Russell,
is a funny and moving case study in the tension between System 1
and System 2. With his out-of-control System 1, actor Bradley Cooper is always on the verge of exploding into violent rage.
His befuddled System 2 thinks, for a while, that he still loves
his ex-wife, and needs her back. But his System 1 has fallen for
the character played by Jennifer Lawrence, and she has fallen
for him, too. That’s quite a silver lining. In a cakewalk,
Russell gets the Becon for best director.

Best Actor: Human beings tend to display unrealistic
optimism. Studies have found that the vast majority of people
believe that they are safer than the average driver; more
generally, people often think that they are less likely than
others to face serious hardship. We can get into a lot of
trouble if we underestimate the likelihood of a bad outcome, but
optimism can also be energizing and increase the prospects for
success.

For best actor, the Becon goes to Daniel Day-Lewis,
portraying America’s melancholy optimist. As Day-Lewis shows
brilliantly, Abraham Lincoln repeatedly bucked the odds. Through
skill and sheer force of will, operating in concert with what
his critics not unreasonably took to be unrealistic optimism, he
succeeded in abolishing slavery and saving the badly imperiled
union. (Honorable mention to Ben Affleck for his Becon-worthy
performance in “Argo,” which also explores what seems to be
unrealistic optimism.)

Best Actress: What do people notice? What do they fail to
see? Behavioral economists have long been interested in the
limits of human attention and the power of salience. Some
important aspects of products, activities and situations just
aren’t salient to us, and so we ignore them, often to our
detriment. In “Side Effects,” Rooney Mara is a brilliant
manipulator of the attention of others (especially Jude Law),
and she is a champion at distraction. She won’t be eligible for
an Oscar until next year, but she has our attention right now,
and for best actress, she wins the Becon.

Best Picture: We have a major upset. A lot of social-
science research shows that people are both spiteful and
altruistic. We will sacrifice our material self-interest to
punish what we see as unfairness. At the same time, we may well
give up a lot in order to help others. Bane, the punishing
villain of “The Dark Knight Rises,” is spite incarnate, and in
the end Batman is the spirit of sacrifice, and hence Bane’s
worst nightmare. Consider this exchange. Selina Kyle: “You
don’t owe these people anymore. You’ve given them everything.”
Batman: “Not everything. Not yet.”

For best picture, the winner of the Becon is rising, and he
is called the Dark Knight.

(Cass R. Sunstein, the Robert Walmsley University Professor
at Harvard Law School, is a Bloomberg View columnist. He is the
former administrator of the White House Office of Information
and Regulatory Affairs, the co-author of “Nudge” and author of
“Simpler: The Future of Government,” to be published in April.
The opinions expressed are his own.)

To contact the writer of this article:
Cass R. Sunstein at csunstei@law.harvard.edu.